1940

FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler—the Election amid the Storm

In 1940, against the explosive backdrop of the Nazi onslaught in Europe, two farsighted candidates for the U.S. presidency—Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, running for an unprecedented third term, and talented Republican businessman Wendell Willkie—found themselves on the defensive against American isolationists and their charismatic spokesman Charles Lindbergh, who called for surrender to Hitler's demands. In this dramatic account of that turbulent and consequential election, historian Susan Dunn brings to life the debates, the high-powered players, and the dawning awareness of the Nazi threat as the presidential candidates engaged in their own battle for supremacy. 1940 not only explores the contest between FDR and Willkie but also examines the key preparations for war that went forward, even in the midst of that divisive election season. The book tells an inspiring story of the triumph of American democracy in a world reeling from fascist barbarism, and it offers a compelling alternative scenario to today’s hyperpartisan political arena, where common ground seems unattainable.

Susan Dunn is the Third Century Professor of Humanities at Williams College. She is the author of a dozen books, including The Three Roosevelts, cowritten with James MacGregor Burns, and Roosevelt’s Purge, winner of the Henry Adams Prize and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in history. She lives in Williamstown, MA.